Did J. Edgar Hoover Blackmail Justice Abe Fortas?

Certain FBI documents raise not only the question of whether Abe Fortas, former justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was gay, but whether J. Edgar Hoover successfully blackmailed Fortas, while he was a member of the Supreme Court.

In 1967, Hoover sent his trusted aide, Cartha DeLoach, to put the FBI’s knowledge of the accusation before Fortas – who was then a member of the Supreme Court.

The document in question contained allegations by a known homosexual that he had "balled" with Fortas. Fortas said the allegation was "ridiculous," but rather than throwing the FBI agent out of his office, Fortas expressed appreciation for the FBI’s delicate handling of the matter, and then went on to discuss a pending Supreme Court decision with DeLoach – a clear breach of Supreme Court etiquette.

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With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick O’Connor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998. Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: Read More